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For the first time in 15 years, teen births are on the rise.

Though the reason for the spike is not clear, the statistic has exacerbated the debate between abstinence-only and safe-sex sex education advocates. Some experts say they expected an increase in teen parents, due to the increased funding that abstinence-only sex education has received in recent years. In these programs, students are not taught how to use a condom or choose alternate forms of birth control.

To back this theory up, these same experts point to the rise in STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), such as chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea, saying that this, too, is a symptom of abstinence-only sex education. Yet some studies show that teenagers are using condoms more than ever.

Despite what we may first think, the majority of single parents are not teenagers. In today’s United States, the majority of unwed mothers are in their 20s and 30s, with teens taking up less than 25 percent of that statistic. Less than 30 years ago, more than 50 percent of all unwed mothers were under 19.